Analyzing the climbing price of XBLA games

by Richard Mitchell on Jul 22nd 2009 8:30PM

Remember when you could go out to eat, see a moving picture and take the trolley back home for only two bits? Those days, much like the heady days of Xbox Live Arcade games costing only $5, are over. Kotaku has gone through the Xbox 360's library of XBLA games all the way back to the console's launch and analyzed the fluctuation in prices over the years.

"Fluctuation" probably isn't the right word, as the data shows that prices have been rising steadily since August of 2007. In fact, the average price of an XBLA game has risen to $9.05, up from an average price of $7.31 when the Xbox 360 launched in 2005. Also, as many Xbox gamers have probably noticed, the 1200

($15) price point is becoming more common.

Granted, climbing prices aren't exactly news to anyone that enjoys Microsoft's download service but oh-my-God-look-at-that-graph.

Source

Tags: business, microsoft, xbla, Xbox-360, xbox-live

Reader Comments (60)

XBLA games have also been getting bigger and more complex, but still, the prices are still a bit high.

That's exactly what I was thinking. I'm not a big microtransaction customer in general so I may be wrong, but it seems like XBLA games have been getting more attention lately and thus more production power. I'm happy paying $10 for a quality self-contained game, it's just that most XBLA games before then were not worth that $10. Most still aren't but there are a few creeping up that do deserve the higher price tag.

I also think that there is a bit of the "see what the market will bear" aspect to it. It IS a slippery slope...the more people become comfortable with microtransactions and higher prices for these purchases, the more products will cost. But my point is, the slipping of the sloping may not be a bad thing. :P

15 beans is kinda where my ceiling is on XBLA games. While I actually don't think 20 is *that* bad, certainly anything beyond that is loony toons. Fruity flakes. Just serious cocoa pebbles. Castle Crashers, which I just got back into, seems about right at 15. Stupid All You Can Quaff cheevo...

*AHEM, and now for something completely different... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=glGG5Q4C6BA

Well I want to know what magical store I can go to that will trade me games for beans. 'Cause I can get beans wholesale at Berkely Bowl and 15 beans is nothing!

I agree with Markez. $15 is the my magic ceiling as well.

@ markez
thank you for the skerritt vid

@saria
I'm jealous that you (presumably) go to berkley

@ Richard Mitchell
I totally see how the "arcade" logo kind of looks like it is mugging someone. thank you for that :)

Whoever made that graph should be punched in the taint. This is the same sort of misleading crap that advertisers use to hide small differences. The bottom of the graph is at 550, and the only reason for that is to exaggerate the difference.

XBLA games have also been getting bigger and more complex, but still, the prices are a bit high.

Double post blah.

No prob crag brah

This is true, but I don't necessarily feel like it's price gauging or anything (not that that's what you were implying). The first year and a half was full of small games and arcade re-releases, which by default are going to be cheaper to produce. Ever since Bionic Commando: Rearmed really the XBLA games have been rising in their scope, graphical fidelity, file size, and development cost. Makes sense to me, I'm glad that Microsoft is less strict about the memory restrictions. I'd be curious to see this data compared with the pricing data of PSN games.

In my opinion, the prices started to climb after Castle Crashers and Braid. Both were fifteen dollar releases.

Yeah you're right on the pricing, I should clarify: Bionic Commando: Rearmed was one of the first of the XBLA games with higher production values and likely costs, I more meant that it kind of ushered in the current crop of Shadow Complexes and the like.

For the most part I tend to avoid the $15 games, especially with the Deal of the Week promotion still out there.

I'm kinda the same way where I tend to avoid $15 games. $10 is my unofficial price cap. If a game has the $15 ticket, I tend to not even look at it.

About the same here. $10 is usually my cap unless I'm completely convinced $15 is worth it. I've never bought a download for $20.

I'll spend $15 or more if I think it's worth it. Braid, TLAD and Portal were worth their cost and more, in my opinion.

I've been very interested in Gel: Set & Match since its release, but I haven't purchased it yet due to the $15 price. The game (to me) is easily worth $10, but not even close to being worth the price or the hassle of $15. I HATE the concept of leftover and useless points.

Turtles MUST come out at 800! That way I can get another game with that card.

I'm pissed off about this. I am more than willing to spend the points on games like castle crashers, braid, battlefield, and most likely will instabuy turtles in time, but dont they realize that more people are willing to buy decent B games, if they are more reasonably priced. And dont even get me started on the C- games and worse asking for 10-15 bucks. If yaris didnt come out till tomorrow, it would probably cost 800 points.

Let's not kid ourselves there aren't that many XBLA games that are worth 1200 points or higher. Most of the are just plain greedy for pricing some of those games that high!!!

$10 is the perfect price. not too low. not too high.

You commenting on this topic is like Larry Flint commenting on a blog for feminists.

there are games that are cross platform and the same price

I got Geometry Wars for $5. And I got Pixeljunk Monsters for $5.

I never regretted paying only $5 and not $10 for either of them. So I think sub-$10 prices have a lot of merit.

I wonder where EA/Hasbro Family Game Night fits into all this....

For those complaning about the rise of price of games realeased on Arcade do you want the store to be comprise only of sloppy ports of old arcade and genesis games? because that's what you get for 5$, now if you want newer bigger and richer games you have to pay $15 and if you do a honest comparison you can get much more hours of enjoyment from these $15 games than most of 60$ disc games. In my view if the game is good 15$ is a fair price, in fact as mostly a PC Gamer I have to thank the Arcade service to bring the cost of these type of games down because they usually cost 20$ to 30$ on PC but the lower prices on consoles as transitioned to the PC

I'm not sure what high cost of living suburb your parents live in, but in most of the U.S. 5 dollars can buy you a good meal, a movie, bus fare back and forth across a city, a couple beers, a game of mini-putt putt and 2 for 1 margaritas at chillis!

I don't live in the US but with 5$ I can actually buy 3 beers, in a actual not very expensive bar in the supermarket I can buy about 10 beers :), but if I want a new disc based game for the 360 I would spend about 70€ = 100$, thats why I mostly play the PC and buy games from Steam or the UK stores

"For those complaning about the rise of price of games realeased on Arcade do you want the store to be comprise only of sloppy ports of old arcade and genesis games?"

Sure, that would be fine. There's a reason they also release disc games.

$5 isn't limited to that, by the way. Geo Wars and Uno were both huge and were only $5.

cant believe TMNT is going to be 15. it's wayy to short.

Other games like BF1943 are totally worth it though

BF1943 is a $10 game with a $15 price tag because of brand recognition

http://garash.org/data/sounds/ohmygah.mp3

I wish I were a bird!

When the game matches the price, I'm completely ok with paying $15ish for a digital download. Monkey Island for $10 and Portal for $15 were great deals. Some games are just overpriced though. I hate it when you are looking forward to a game and the price gets announced $5 or $10 more than what you thought.

This.

I can't wait until Shadow Complex comes out, and the $15 tag seems almost to be a steal for this game. I originally thought it was going to be $20. It's unfair to lump all the games under one lump category of "XBLA games" and try to compare based off of that. Of course back at the beginning, who is going to pay for than $5 for Root Beer Tapper, you know? Games keep getting bigger and more ridiculous, and as long as the price tag matches the quality, it's fine with me.

I'm glad I'm not the only one that's ridiculously excited for Shadow Complex.

What a useless freaken post. Sure - games were cheaper when live started.... But the freaken games included Frogger, Space Invaders and Pac-man.

BF1943, Moneky Island, Magic the Gathering, Sam and Max... these are all well worth the points.

lmao a useless comment as well if you ask me.

negged

Microsoft’s stupidly strict 400, 800 & 1200 pricing structure isn’t helping, I don't understand why they can't use prices in-between like 600 & 1000. More and more games are being branded as too expensive for what they offer, especially with the 1200 point “Summer of Arcade” games. I can understand why some games need to be priced over 400 or 800 points but the inflexible pricing structure means that such games automatically gets a 50% increase in price.

I'd really like to hear Microsoft’s reasoning for not introduced a more flexible pricing structure for downloadable games, especially when you look at how much the business has grown and diversified over the past few years.

"I'd really like to hear Microsoft’s reasoning for not introduced a more flexible pricing structure for downloadable games, "

The reason is simple: it's a system that makes them truckloads of money for extremely little effort. All at the expense of the consumer.

Note only do they advertise a game at 800 points when you HAVE to buy a minimum of 1000 to purchase it, but those left-over points then encourage people to purchase more just "to use them up".

Any left-over points are pure profit to MS as they do not have to be distributed as royalties to third-parties. And the time differential between your purchase of points and the ultimate transfer of royalties or earnings means that Microsoft earn god-knows how many millions each year from collective interest.

Basically, it's a scam. A blatant one at that.

I'm surprised it's even legal in most countries.

Well actually Splosion Man is only 800 points. Now that's a price tag I dig. Turtles, learn that.

@Womble
I really don't care about the whole "they advertise a game at 800 points when you HAVE to buy a minimum of 1000 to purchase it" because I buy so many Arcae games and Rock Band tracks on an almost weekly basis.

@cafecito
Yeah I agree Splosion Man is great and well worth the 800 points.
Turtles I refuse to pay 1200 points for seeing as its a 30 minute game and I don't like the look of the new 3D graphics. I'd prefer to go and play it MAME or the SNES, which I did a few days ago.

"I really don't care about the whole "they advertise a game at 800 points when you HAVE to buy a minimum of 1000 to purchase it" because I buy so many Arcae games and Rock Band tracks on an almost weekly basis."

I suspect I'm probably more representative of a "typical" XBL user in that I have a bunch of games I like playing -- all of them purchased shrinkwrapped -- and will only buy DLC if I really have to.

For the vast bulk of "casual" XBL users, the difference between a stated price and the real cost-to-purchase is significant, because we don't want to (a) pay more than the stated price, and (b) hang on to unused MS points. i.e. money.

Given that we're getting games like Castle Crashers instead of games like Frogger and Time Pilot, I'm not particularly bothered.

Most people try to hide their ignorance from the world, instead of parading it like a virtue.

lol it was a joke, chill out.

I find it very difficult to spend more than 800 points on a game I'm not going to be able to trade in and probably won't carry over to the next gen console.

I will spend 1200 on a quality game but they are becoming so common that I have to limit the number of 1200 point games I would buy. There are at least 5 games that I would buy right now if they were 800 points instead of 1200. Man I wish Lode Runner was 800 points.

I normally have a $10 price ceiling, and that's rare. I had so much fun playing the Battlefield 1943 trial, I paid the $15 for it and have gotten my money's worth.

However, $15-20 for DLC for a game I already paid $60 for? Suck it.

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Analyzing the climbing price of XBLA games

Reader Comments (60)

Posted: Jul 22nd 2009 8:36PM (Unverified) said

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